New Delhi:The Congress core group met on Sunday to discuss the political situation and issues related to government formation following the impressive performance of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) in the Lok Sabha elections.
The strategic meeting, held at Seven Race Course Road, was attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress President Sonia Gandhi, her political secretary Ahmed Patel and Defence Minister A K Antony amongst others, party sources said.
It was the first high-level meeting in which the top Congress leadership discussed whether to take on board independents or parties of the Fourth Front like Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Janata Dal to form the government.
The UPA is short of a dozen seats to reach the majority mark of 272 in Parliament.
Another meeting of the Congress Working Committee(CWC) is scheduled to take stock of the situation following the poll results.
The sources said that after the CWC meeting, Congress leadership would hold discussions with the allies to finalise the details of government formation.
Young MPs give Rahul credit for Congress win
New Delhi, May 17: A day after the people's verdict in favour of the Congress, the party's young MPs on Sunday credited its stunning performance to general secretary Rahul Gandhi.
Sachin Pilot, Congress' newly elected MP from Alwar, said: "Congress' good show in the General Elections is because of Rahul Gandhi's efforts."
Pilot, who was in the capital to attend the meeting of the party Sunday, added that it was Rahul Gandhi's hard work that had helped "attract youth voters".
"The Congress party will give a dynamic, stable and functional government under the leadership of Manmohan Singh."
Jitin Prasada, Congress MP from Dhaurahra in Uttar Pradesh, also gave the young Gandhi credit.
"The party's spectacular performance in Uttar Pradesh is because of Rahul Gandhi's work. The people in Uttar Pradesh rejected caste based politics and supported development".
"We are confident of winning the next state Assembly Elections in Uttar Pradesh."
Besides Pilot and Prasada, several youth leaders like Jyotiraditya Scindia, Milind Deora, Deepender Hooda, Ashok Tanwar, Meenakshi Natarajan and Bhanwar Jitendra Singh emerged victorious in these elections.
Rahul’s tea party
Meanwhile, enthused with the people's verdict in favour of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance, Rahul Gandhi Sunday invited his party colleagues to a tea party, where they will discuss the results and future strategy.
"Rahul is giving the tea party to meet the leaders from different states to discuss the results and the future strategy of the party," Congress party sources said.
The tea party is taking place at 15 Rakabganj Road, also known as the "war room" of the Congress party office.
'Iron Man' Advani fails to deliver for BJP
New Delhi, May 16, 2009LK Advani, the man who used mobilisation politics to galvanise BJP into a force to reckon with, failed to put the party back in the portals of power - a job A B Vajpayee did in two elections with his liberal image.
The 81-year-old leader's dreams of becoming Prime Minister came crashing down as the Congress-led UPA was all set to form the next government at the Centre.
Although BJP tasted power in 1998 and 1999, Advani had to wait in the wings of Vajpayee and it was only in this election that his party projected him as its PM candidate after the former prime minister stood down from active politics.
A second chance appears unlikely for the BJP's aging 'Iron Man' as during the campaign the saffron party started projecting Narendra Modi as future prime minister, a strategy that is being rued by some leaders in the wake of defeat.
It was Advani who had catapulted the BJP into the national stage with his Hindu nationalist pitch in the 1990s when he emerged as the leader of the Ayodhya movement.
For half-a-decade, Advani played second fiddle to Vajpayee in the party and also as Deputy Prime Minister in the NDA government, but when the time came for him to lead, he failed to find his feet.
In fact, the 'tallest' leader of BJP also had a knack of getting into controversies. His fall from grace with the Sangh Parivar began after NDA lost power in 2004 and more so after his visit to Pakistan in 2005 when he described Pakistan's founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah as a "scular" leader.
Advani was forced to resign as BJP President on December 31, 2005 over his remarks on Jinnah.
A five-time Lok Sabha member, Advani had way back in 1995 projected Vajpayee as the party's prime ministerial candidate, although he had full control of the organisation at that time.
He had then told Vajpayee, as also party officials, that only Vajpayee was best suited for taking the party's cause forward. A year later BJP came to power for the first time but the government lasted for just 13 days.
In 2005, Vajpayee returned Advani's compliment, calling the 'Iron Man' his 'Ram', virtually anointing Advani his successor. This was followed by his projection as the BJP's prime ministerial candidate, even though elections were almost a year away.
In the 1990s, Advani ushered in a new form of campaigning by undertaking a series of journeys across the country on a mini-bus that he called 'Rath' (chariot).
His first such journey - the Somnath-Ayodhdya Rath yatra - changed the course of politics of the country as it whipped up Hindu nationalist sentiments, contributing to the fall of V P Singh Government.
Projection of Modi caused immense harm to NDA: Sharad Yadav
New Delhi:After the stunning defeat of NDA in Lok Sabha polls, knives were out with its convener Sharad Yadav holding that Varun Gandhi's "hate statement" and projecting of Narendra Modi as future Prime Ministerial candidate had caused immense harm.
"It may be right or wrong or he (Varun's) might have denied but his statement has caused immense damage. His statement was unconstitutional. It was against the country's unity and must have affected the polls," Yadav told reporters.
Asked whether references that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi could be a future Prime Ministerial candidate had affected the prospects of NDA, Yadav, who is also JD(U) president, said the eruption of the issue in deed had confused the people.
"It was a factor. When the issue had come up, it created confusion among the people's mind. Since the NDA had already declared a Prime Ministerial candidate (L K Advani) unanimously, the issue should have been dismissed immediately," he said. Yadav said such an issue (Prime Ministerial candidate) had come up in JD(U) too during the electioneering, but the party summarily rejected.
Asked whether Gujarat riots too had affected the NDA's prospects, Yadav said such issues do have impact on polls. "As far as Godhra is concerned, we have contested four elections after that. Whatever had happened in Godhra and after Godhra were inhuman. So, such incidents do have affect."
Sonia calls up Lalu, asks him to attend Cabinet meeting
PATNA: In an apparent bid to reach out to her estranged ally, Congress president Sonia Gandhi telephoned railway minister Lalu Prasad and asked him to attend the Cabinet meeting scheduled for Monday.
"UPA chairperson rang up the railway minister last evening and requested him to attend a meeting of the union Cabinet on Monday," his private secretary Bhola Yadav said on Sunday.
He, however, did not divulge what transpired during the telephonic talk between the two leaders coming in the backdrop of severe drubbing of RJD-LJP led Fourth Front had in Bihar.
The railway minister, he said, is scheduled to leave for Delhi later in the day.
Lalu has not been attending cabinet meetings ever since he forged an alliance with LJP and Samajwadi Party.
An apparently contrite Lalu, Congress' largest ally in the outgoing Lok Sabha, had on Saturday admitted that not contesting the elections
in alliance with the Congress was a big mistake.
"The decision to contest elections without the Congress on our side was a big mistake and I acknowledge it. However, it is a matter of great happiness for me that the Congress-led UPA is all set to form its government at the Centre," he had said.
Azam Khan resigns as SP general secretary
NEW DELHI: Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan, who was locked in a bitter tussle with the party leadership on the Kalyan Singh issue, on Sunday resigned as the party's general secretary and from its Parliamentary board.
Khan, who was also involved in a feud with party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and Amar Singh on Jaya Prada's candidature from Rampur, took the decision a day after the 47-year-old cine star won the Lok Sabha polls.
Khan's decision came while the SP's Parliamentary board meeting was still in progress.
Party sources said Khan has not been attending any of the board meetings in the last six months.
They said Khan's resignation was expected as the Parliamentary board meeting was to decide about the possible disciplinary action to be taken against Khan, who had been involved in a campaign against Jaya Prada during the run up to the polls.
Khan could not be immediately contacted for his comment.
Willing to be on board UPA government: TMC
Kolkata, May 17: After the electoral drubbing to the ruling Left front in West Bengal, the Trinamool Congress Sunday reiterated that it wants early Assembly elections held in the state. It also said it was confident that the Congress would have the party "on board" in the new United Progressive Alliance government.
Trinamool Congress leader Dinesh Trivedi told a news channel that the 26 Lok Sabha seats bagged by the Trinamool-Congress-Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI) combine, against the Left Front's poor 15, was a "verdict against the Left".
"The verdict is against the Left and there is low confidence in the West Bengal government. We will see that assembly elections are conducted earliest in Bengal as the people have spoken loudly in the general elections about what they want."
On the Trinamool joining the UPA government, Trivedi said: "We are not really in the game of bargain, we are going to work for the people. We have a significant number - the largest number (19 seats) as far as UPA allies are concerned. I am sure the Congress will be interested to have the Trinamool on board."
He also said that Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee would not fight for any position. "Our main ally has been the Congress. We haven't reached the stage where we are talking about anything. It's between (Congress president) Sonia Gandhi and Mamata. They have a fantastic equation, and will do whatever is good for democracy and for the people."
"You know Mamata, she has never hankered for any kind of position. Our objective is to give stability to this country. (Earlier) even two MPs would bargain to bring instability to the country. We want to give dignity to parliament and dignity to the government," he said.
The Left Front got its lowest tally of 15 since 1977 in the state. West Bengal has 42 Lok Sabha seats. Of the 26 seats, the Trinamool won 19 and the Congress got six.
Left parties meet to discuss poll debacle
New Delhi, May 17: The four Left parties, which received a drubbing in the Lok Sabha polls, met here on Sunday to analyse the results and their future course of action.
The meeting at the CPI(M) headquarters was attended by CPI(M)'s Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechury, CPI's AB Bardhan and D Raja, RSP's TJ Chandrachoodan and Forward Bloc's Debabrata Biswas and D Deverajan.
The Left tally was drastically reduced to 24 from the 2004 figure of 61 as it suffered huge setbacks in West Bengal and Kerala.
"We are discussing the reasons of the debacle. We will go through the reasons why we lost. All the parties will also individually need to discuss the issue," Chandrachoodan told reporters before the meeting.
Asked whether aligning with parties like BSP, TDP and JD(S) was a tactical blunder, he said, "I do not think so. Our political line was right."
On whether the Third Front has become irrelevant, he said, "Temporarily it has. But with one defeat, you cannot write it off completely."
He also said meeting of the Third Front allies is unlikely to take place tomorrow.
The top leaders of the four parties, which had supported the UPA government for four and a half years, would deliberate on the reasons for the debacle, particularly in their bastions of West Bengal and Kerala where Congress and Trinamool Congress made significant inroads.
Karat had yesterday said that the Left and its allies will function as an Opposition.
Admitting that the CPI(M) and Left parties have suffered a major setback, he said it necessitated a "serious examination" of the reasons for the party's poor performance.
The CPI(M) Politburo will meet tomorrow to analyse one of the worst ever defeats of the Left in recent times.
Sri Lankan President declares victory in civil war
Sri Lanka's president declared victory in his nation's quarter-century civil war with the Tamil Tigers rebels. But the group's top leaders remained at large, while troops killed at least 70 rebels trying to escape the shrinking northern war zone on Sunday.
A triumph on the battlefield appeared inevitable after government forces captured the last bit of coastline under rebel control on Saturday, surrounding the remaining fighters in a 1.2-square mile (3.1-square kilometer) patch of land.
Thousands of civilians who had been trapped by the fighting poured across the front lines, the military said. "My government, with the total commitment of our armed forces, has in an unprecedented humanitarian operation finally defeated the LTTE militarily," President Mahinda Rajapaksa said referring to the rebels by their formal name, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. "I will be going back to a country that has been totally freed from the barbaric acts of the LTTE," he said in a speech in Jordan that was distributed to the media in Sri Lanka.
The rebels, who once controlled a de facto state across much of the north, have been fighting since 1983 for a separate state for minority Tamils after decades of marginalization by the Sinhalese majority. Responsible for hundreds of suicide attacks _ including the 1991 assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi _ the Tamil Tigers have been branded terrorists by the U.S., E.U. and India and shunned internationally.
The rebels also controlled a conventional army, with artillery units, a significant navy and even a tiny air force. After repeated stalemates on the battlefield, the military broke through the rebel lines last year and forced the insurgents into a broad retreat, capturing their administrative capital at Kilinochchi in January and vowing to retake control over the rest of the country.
The rebels have insisted that if they are defeated in conventional battle, they will return to their guerrilla roots. On Saturday morning, government troops sweeping in from the north and south seized control of the island's entire coastline for the first time in decades, sealing the rebels in a tiny pocket of territory and cutting off the possibility of a sea escape by the rebels' top leaders, the military said.
Government forces have been hunting for reclusive rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and his top deputies for months, but it was unclear if they remained in rebel territory or had already fled overseas.
Even as Rajapaksa declared victory, the military reported that fighting continued to rage in the northeast war zone. Huge explosions could be heard across the battlefield as rebels detonated their ammunition stocks and artillery dumps, military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said.
Early Sunday, the insurgents tried to escape from the surrounding troops in six boats across a lagoon. But army troops thwarted the rebel attempt, killing a large number of rebels, said the military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara.
So far, 70 bodies of rebel fighters have been recovered, he said. Reports of the fighting are difficult to verify because the government has barred most journalists and aid workers from the conflict zone.
Some 11,800 civilians escaped the war zone Saturday, joining more than 200,000 others who fled in recent months and are being held in displacement camps, Nanayakkara said. Rights groups say the rebels were holding the civilians as human shields to blunt the government offensive. The rebels denied the accusation.
U.N. spokesman Gordon Weiss said an estimated 20,000 people had emerged from the combat zone in the past few days and were being processed by the government. "We have no access to that process. We hold grave fears for the safety of the estimated 30,000 to 80,000 people who are still inside the combat zone," he said.
The U.N. says 7,000 civilians were killed and 16,700 wounded from Jan. 20 through May 7. Since then, health officials say more than 1,000 civilians have been killed in a week of heavy shelling that rights groups and foreign governments have blamed on Sri Lankan forces.
The government denied firing heavy weapons and brushed off calls for a humanitarian truce.
Each Infy employee worth Rs 97 lakh
NEW DELHI: Each employee at IT bellwether Infosys Technologies is worth as much as Rs 97 lakh, mainly based on the potential value of their
future earnings for the company.
The IT major's total value of human resources, which includes both software professionals and support staff, is pegged at Rs 1,02,133 crore for the fiscal ended March 2009.
According to the company's annual report, the human resources' value of Rs 1,02,133 crore during fiscal 2009 was for 1,04,850 employees during the same period.
On an average, the same translates into a value of about Rs 97 lakh for each employee.
For the fiscal year ended March 31, 2008, the value of human resources stood at Rs 98,821 crore while the total work force of the company stood at 91,187.
In FY 2009 the number of software professionals and support staff stood at 97,349 and 7,501 respectively, the report said.
The value of human resources is evaluated and based on the "present value of future earnings of employees" and few other factors, the company said.
Employee compensation includes all direct and indirect benefits earned both in India and overseas and the incremental earnings based on "group or age" are among the assumptions take into account, it added.
The report noted that the value is computed using the "Lev & Schwartz" model.
Knights manage to lose again & how
Johannesburg, May 16, 2009:The Kolkata Knight Riders contrived to lose a game that was all but won when the last over began. The Deccan Chargers needed 21 from 6 balls, bowled by Mashrafe Mortaza, and Rohit Sharma played a scarcely believable hand.
Utter confusion reigned off the first ball as the square-leg umpire declared a no-ball as insufficient fielders were in the circle. This was hit for four. Just two off the next two balls and the Chargers needed 14 from 4 balls. A full-toss was swung for six over square-leg, the nervous Mortaza bowled a wide and Rohit was looking at 7 from 3. A scampered brace off the fifth ball, a superb extra-cover drive for four and one needed off the last ball. With the field up Mortaza bowled a bouncer and Rohit swung it for six.
The irony was that the Kolkata team had overcome an iffy start to post a strong 160 for 5. Brendon McCullum was trying to hit his way out of disappointment and Sourav Ganguly was equally desperate but unlike the captain, he didn't get out. His repeated and failed attempts to force the issue affected his team's scoring rate and the target would have been a moderate one if not for David Hussey who made a 17-ball 43.
The Chargers, though, had too much firepower, and KKR found a new way to lose a game that had been won.
Kolkata Knight Riders: B McCullum c Suman b Harris 20 (18b, 1x4, 1x6), S Ganguly c Harris b Sharma 33 (41b, 3x4), B Hodge c Harmeet Singh b Harris 48 (41b, 5x4), D Hussey run out (Gilchrist) 43 (17b, 2x4, 4x6), W Saha c Singh b Symonds 7 (3b, 1x6), M Mortaza not out 2 (2b), A Agarkar not out 0 (0b);
Extras (b 1, lb 2, w 2, nb 2) 7 ;
Total (5 wkts; 20 overs) 160;
Fall of wkts: 1-27, 2-85, 3-117, 4-152, 5-158;
Bowling: Harris 4-0-20-2, RP Singh 3.1-0-30-0 (2nb, 2w), Symonds 4-0-28-1,Harmeet Singh 3.5-0 –40-0, P Ojha 3-0-24-0, Sharma 2-0-15-1.
Deccan Chargers: A Gilchrist c sub (LR Shukla) b Hodge 43 (31b, 5x4, 2x6), H Gibbs c Hussey b Kartik 28 (34b, 3x4, 0x6), T Suman run out 31 (24b, 3x4, 1x6), A Symonds run out 18 (13b, 1x6), R Sharma not out 32 (13b, 3x4, 2x6), V Rao not out 7 (7b);
Extras (b-1, lb-2, w-2, nb-2) 7;
Total (for 4 wkts; 20 overs) 166;
Fall of wkts: 1-68, 2-85, 3-116, 4-128;
Bowling: I Sharma 4-0-23-0, Mortaza 4-0-58-0, M Kartik 4-0-12-1, B Hodge 3-0-23-1, A Agarkar 4-0-41-0, D Hussey 1-0-6-0.
Super Kings dash Mumbai Indians hopes of semifinal spot
Johannesburg, May 16, 2009:The Mumbai Indians spent on Friday evening on the beach at Port Elizabeth, soaking in the breathtaking view. The fresh seaside air should have helped them get over the disappointment in the wake of the heartbreaking loss at the hands of the Rajasthan Royals.
Unfortunately, it didn’t help much as they went down to the Chennai Super Kings the next day, all but ensuring that their IPL II journey ends short of the semifinals. The Chennai Super Kings, on the other hand, is now more or less certain of making it to the semifinals. After their close loss to Bangalore the Chennai team needed to win to spare themselves last moment jitters and calculations. Chasing 148 they didn’t look in control in the first 10 overs as the Mumbai Indians kept them in check. They managed to keep Matthew Hayden shackled and also picked up a couple of wickets. But things changed after the strategic break when Dhoni stepped in and the duo took the team home rather comfortably in the end.
As for Mumbai, they failed to put up as many runs as they would have liked, in the do-or-die match. The move to bring Jayasuriya back to the top worked as the left-hander made a quick-fire 30, but Dwayne Bravo again perished in unfamiliar territory. Duminy needed to bat through the innings and he did that again to perfection. But a cracking innings was missing from the other end.
Mumbai Indians
S Jayasuriya c Raina b Tyagi 30 (17b, 3x4, 2x6), D Bravo b Morkel 5 (8b, 1x4), JP Duminy run out 62 (54b, 4x4, 2x6), S Tendulkar c Balaji b Raina 11 (14b), A Nayar not out 33 (27b, 1x4, 2x6), Harbhajan Singh run out 1 (1b);
Extras (lb 3, w 1, nb 1) 5;
Total (5 wickets) 147; Fall of wkts: 1-7, 2-49, 3-74, 4-139, 5-147;
Bowling: A Morkel 4- 0-31-1, S Tyagi 3-0-29-1, M Muralitharan 4-0-19-0, S Raina 4-0-22-1, S Jakati 3-0-26-0, L Balaji 2-0-17-0.
Chennai Super Kings
P Patel lbw b Malinga 0 (1b), M Hayden not out 60 (57b, 4x4, 1x6), S Raina c & b Bravo 20 (12b, 2x4, 2x6), S Badrinath c Takawale b Kulkarni 22 (23b, 2x4, 1x6), MS Dhoni not out 23 (22b, 2x4);
Extras (lb 16, w 10) 26; Total (3 wkts; 19.1 overs) 151;
Fall of wkts: 1-0, 2-24, 3-64;
Bowling: L Malinga 4-0-19-1, D Kulkarni 4-0-45-1, D Bravo 3.1-0-19-1, Harbhajan 3-0-22-0, JP Duminy 2-0-9-0, C Nanda 3-0-21-0.
Kings XI in do-or-die match against Deccan
JOHANNESBURG: Having revived their semifinal hopes with a morale-boosting six-wicket win over table toppers Delhi Daredevils, Kings XI Punjab would look to continue their domination over Deccan Chargers in their must-win Indian Premier League match on Sunday.
With 12 points from 12 matches and only one match left after Sunday's clash, they will have to win against Deccan, who have an equal 12 points from 11 outings, if they desire to be in the running for the remaining three semi-final spots after Daredevils had already reserved their place in the last four.
Kings XI had not been a consistent side in this year's IPL having failed to establish a winning momentum but their win against Daredevils on Friday have shown that they can beat any team in the tournament on their day.
They will have the psychological advantage going into the match as they had beaten Adam Gilchrist's men by three wickets in their earlier meeting.
What would have boosted confidence of Kings XI was the return to form of fit-again Australian fast bowler Brett Lee whose man-of-the-match winning 3/15 effort against Delhi kept their semifinal hopes alive.
Lee has added sting to the Kings XI bowling department which also has tough competition within with South African Yusuf Abdulla warming the bench.
ManU wins record equaling 18th league title
London:Manchester United captured their 18th English league title on Saturday when they secured the point they needed in a nervy 0-0 draw at home to Arsenal. It was a cautious display by United, who endured some anxious moments late on before the final whistle sealed a hat-trick of titles and moved them alongside Liverpool as the teams with most English league crowns.
Arsenal, who will finish a distant fourth, enjoyed plenty of possession and came agonisingly close to silencing Old Trafford when captain Cesc Fabregas struck a shot against the outside of Edwin van der Sar's post with seven minutes remaining. United hung on, however, moving to 87 points with one game remaining to end the formidable challenge of Liverpool whose title drought stretches back to 1990. Liverpool, who visit relegation fighters West Bromwich Albion on Sunday, have 80.
"That was the longest 90 minutes in history," said United manager Alex Ferguson, who has won 11 league title in 22 years at the club and is already setting his sights on claiming another one next season. "It will be even more special when we get in front of them (Liverpool). We are a young team and next season we'll go for it again. This is a great side, a great squad, I could have picked two teams today," he told Sky Sports.
Liverpool could finish second with 86 points, the highest total not to win the Premier League, and Ferguson said Rafael Benitez's side had been tough to keep at bay. "They beat us 4-1 at home, which was a travesty of a result, but they got great impetus from that. That gave them the scent and they took the scent and credit to them because they've battled all the way."
